Apple® today announced that the Mac® App Store℠ is now open for business with more than 1,000 free and paid apps. The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS® X v10.6.6.

The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said:

With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start, we think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps

As mentioned, the Mac App Store is launching with nearly a 1,000 apps in the store, Apple’s signature iLife suite is available in entirely individual parts, iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand apps are available individually in the Mac App Store for $14.99 each, and Pages, Keynote and Numbers apps from iWork are available for $19.99 each. Aperture 3, Apple’s powerful photo editing and management software, is available for $79.99.

Indeed, as compared to the iOS App Store, the number of apps in the Mac App Store is relatively quite less, however this number is surely going to rise soon enough. The Mac App Store will function similarly to the App Store that all Apple users are accustomed to, providing a universal installation process and update notifications.

Click here to get finally get your hands on the Mac App Store.

The gPda team is working on a new hardware aluminium skin for the iPhone that will make the Apple logo glow just as it does on a Macbook.

The Apple Logo glow does not take much of the iPhone battery but definitely adds more to its style, and the glow intensity can be adjusted manually through the iPhone settings.

gPda has already managed to mod some iPhones and it shall be available for purchase at an online store shortly. To watch a live video demo of the Apple Logo glow, visit iNews76.

Sure, we’ve sized these two up theoretically, but how well do Voodoo’s Envy 133 and Apple’s MacBook Air get along when sharing the same meatspace? There are certainly some striking similarities — both have gargantuan trackpads, for instance, but Voodoo has taken things in an aesthetic direction all its own. We just hope these two decide to be friends instead of mortal, cake-cutting enemies.

Yup, another Apple store outage reveals yet another bump in product specs. This time, it’s the iMac getting the treatment just as Geeksugar and our own sources predicted — on a Monday though instead of Apple’s customary Tuesday morning approach. So what’s new? Well, for starters you’re now looking at the latest Core 2 Duo Penryn processors. For the same starting price of $1,199, you now get a 20-inch iMac with 2.4GHz proc, 128MB of ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics, 1GB of memory and a 250GB 7200RPM disk. The top of the line 24-inch model now sports a 3.06GHz processor, 512MB of NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics, 2GB of memory, and 320GB 7200rpm disk for $2,199. Rounding out the specs across the lineup are Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11n WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in iSight cam, and 5x USB 2.0 (which includes the 2x on tethered keyboard) and 1x Firewire 400 and 1x Firewire 800. Same size, same weight and available now… yes, right now.

We contacted Telecom Italia who refuse to comment on the matter.

[Thanks, jimbojambo and Claudio]

What’s better than having a nice leather or cloth iPod sleeve to show off to your friends? If you’re thinking one made of imitation meat — you’re dead right! Apparently, a company in Japan is under the impression that you want to wrap your music player in a grade A lookalike, undoubtedly to the thrill of your vegetarian friends and family. Of course, don’t just get one for the shock value — this thing oozes pure, sophisticated style. If you’ve got ¥6,800 (or about $66) and dignity to spare, it can be all yours.

[Via DVICE]

Whoops! Apple’s gone and leaked its brand new aluminum MacBook and redesigned MacBook Pros to the interblogs. Yeah, it seems old Jobsy has really loosened the binds over in Cupertino — he doesn’t care what gets out these days. No, but seriously, some cats on the internet supposedly discovered a .Mac page which appears to display mockups (or actual product renderings) for a new line of laptops, as well as adverts for iTunes 8 and iPhones in the 32GB variety (for Australia, naturally). Of course, this is wild, crazy, unfounded speculation, and likely has no basis in reality at all. Then again, you never know… stranger things have happened. Steve, we await your takedown requests. See full pages for yourself in the gallery after the break.

Update: Looks like MacRumors got duped by its own forum members — these are fan-made mockups. Oh well, at least we can dream.

[Thanks, al and sleuth]

Apple unveiled all new software for Apple TV which will let you rent movies on the iTunes Store directly to your widescreen TV. Great note is that Apple lowered the price of Apple TV to $229. By the end of February 2008 you will be able to rent from over 1,000 titles with over 100 being in HD and with 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound.DVD-quality iTunes Movie Rentals are only $2.99 for library titles and just $3.99 for new releases. Just like blockbuster but you dont have to even leave the couch and drive to the store or wait for the movies to come in through the mail. The new Apple TV priced at $229 will be released in about two weeks.

Apple TV easily connects tomost TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports.

The new Apple TV software will be available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers later this month. Apple TV can be purchased from www.apple.com, or Apple Resellers for $229 (the 40GB model) or $329 (the 160GB model).